Other editions of book The Waste Land

Those who want to study T. S. Eliot's classic poem The Waste Land need the background information from which the poem was written: From Ritual to Romance, by Jessie L. Weston, and the Adonis, Attis, and Osiris chapters from The Golden Bough, by James G. Frazer. This study edition includes them all--along with English translations of all foreign passages in the poem and its notes. An excellent edition for all students of T. S. Eliot.

The Waste Land is a long poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial. It was published in book form in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are "April is the cruellest month", "I will show you fear in a handful of dust", and the mantra in the Sanskrit language "Shantih shantih shantih". Eliot's poem loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of contemporary British society. Eliot employs many literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon, Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads. Because of this, critics and scholars regard the poem as obscure. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, and time and conjuring of a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures. The Waste Land's structure is divided into five sections. The first section, "The Burial of the Dead," introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair. The second, "A Game of Chess," employs vignettes of several characters—alternating narrations—that address those themes experientially. "The Fire Sermon," the third section, offers a philosophical meditation in relation to the imagery of death and views of self-denial in juxtaposition influenced by Augustine of Hippo and eastern religions. After a fourth section, "Death by Water," which includes a brief lyrical petition, the culminating fifth section, "What the Thunder Said," concludes with an image of judgment. Eliot probably worked on the text that became The Waste Land for several years preceding its first publication in 1922. In a May 1921 letter to New York lawyer and patron of modernism John Quinn, Eliot wrote that he had "a long poem in mind and partly on paper which I am wishful to finish".[5] Richard Aldington, in his memoirs, relates that "a year or so" before Eliot read him the manuscript draft of The Waste Land in London, Eliot visited him in the country.[6] While walking through a graveyard, they discussed Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Aldington writes: "I was surprised to find that Eliot admired something so popular, and then went on to say that if a contemporary poet, conscious of his limitations as Gray evidently was, would concentrate all his gifts on one such poem he might achieve a similar success."[6] Eliot, having been diagnosed with some form of nervous disorder, had been recommended rest, and applied for three months' leave from the bank where he was employed; the reason stated on his staff card was "nervous breakdown". He and his first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot, travelled to the coastal resort of Margate, Kent, for a period of convalescence. While there, Eliot worked on the poem, and possibly showed an early version to Ezra Pound when, after a brief return to London, the Eliots travelled to Paris in November 1921 and stayed with him. Eliot was en route to Lausanne, Switzerland, for treatment by Doctor Roger Vittoz, who had been recommended to him by Ottoline Morrell; Vivienne was to stay at a sanatorium just outside Paris. In Hotel Ste. Luce (where Hotel Elite stands since 1938) in Lausanne, Eliot produced a 19-page version of the poem.[7] He returned from Lausanne in early January 1922. Pound then made detailed editorial comments and significant cuts to the manuscript. Eliot later dedicated the poem to Pound.

The Waste Land is a classic poem by T. S. Eliot, considered a landmark text of the Modernist movement. Famous for juxtaposing Eastern cultures with Western literary references, The Waste Land has been celebrated for its eloquence, depth of meaning and numerous subtleties. Rich with allusions to religious texts of Hinduism and Buddhism, ancient literature, and Eliot's own life, the poem is admired to this day and is a common text in school and university English literature courses. Painstakingly composed, the original drafts of The Waste Land were far longer than the final edition which is composed of five distinct parts. Truncation occurred on the advice of Eliot's contemporary and friend Ezra Pound. A famous line - "And we shall play a game of chess/The ivory men make company between us / Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door" - was removed at the request of Eliot's wife Vivienne, it is thought for being too revealing about their married life. Quickly ascending to the status of literary classic, The Waste Land is widely considered by literary scholars to be Eliot's finest poem, representing a maturity in his style and a confidence in both expression and in research. Since its initial publication in 1922, it has been published dozens of times alone and in anthologies. This edition contains notes which explain and clarify the deeper and more nuanced verses.

The first section of The Waste Land takes its title from a line in the Anglican burial service. It is made up of four vignettes, each seemingly from the perspective of a different speaker. The first is an autobiographical snippet from the childhood of an aristocratic woman, in which she recalls sledding and claims that she is German, not Russian (this would be important if the woman is meant to be a member of the recently defeated Austrian imperial family). The woman mixes a meditation on the seasons with remarks on the barren state of her current existence (“I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter”). The second section is a prophetic, apocalyptic invitation to journey into a desert waste, where the speaker will show the reader “something different from either / Your shadow at morning striding behind you / Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; / [He] will show you fear in a handful of dust” (Evelyn Waugh took the title for one of his best-known novels from these lines).

The Waste Land is a 434 line poem presented in five-parts, written by T. S. Eliot; considered by many to be one of the greatest poets in history. It is one of the most important writings of modernist poetry. The Waste Land loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King while including cultural shades from Western canon, Buddhism and Hindu Upanishads. The Waste Land is highly recommended for those who enjoy important poetic works and for those newly discovering the talent of T. S. Eliot.

The Waste Land is a classic poem by T. S. Eliot, considered a landmark text of the Modernist movement. Famous for juxtaposing Eastern cultures with Western literary references, The Waste Land has been celebrated for its eloquence, depth of meaning and numerous subtleties. Rich with allusions to religious texts of Hinduism and Buddhism, ancient literature, and Eliot's own life, the poem is admired to this day and is a common text in school and university English literature courses. Painstakingly composed, the original drafts of The Waste Land were far longer than the final edition which is composed of five distinct parts. Truncation occurred on the advice of Eliot's contemporary and friend Ezra Pound. A famous line - "And we shall play a game of chess/The ivory men make company between us / Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door" - was removed at the request of Eliot's wife Vivienne, it is thought for being too revealing about their married life.